Tag: ice

The Enchanting Blue Hour

Photographers love the “blue hour”, and I was lucky to capture this phenomenon on Solstice Evening. The blue hour is the period just before or just after the sunset. During this time, the landscape, including frozen ponds like this one, is bathed in deep blue light. In northern climates this phenomena often occurs in the colder months.

Wildlife Pond, Mass Audubon Wachusett Meadow

Beavers have kept a stream of water open. It leads to a water hole on the far left. They use this opening to crawl onto the ice.

A close up of the beaver’s hole. Notice the small sticks and branches left on top of the ice.

Ice Breaker

An icy pond at Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary won’t stop this beaver from “going out for dinner”.
A beaver can break off large chunks of ice with its body, chew off smaller pieces, or swim underneath the ice to churn up warmer water from the bottom.
Aquatic plants can be dinner for a beaver, along with bark, bushes and grasses.
This beaver is likely munching water lily roots in the last of the late afternoon sun.

Time to head home…
Past the bird blind….
Near the Wood Duck box….
And finally, home!
The beaver has left behind a perfect trail to visit another day, but human visitors, beware!

Ice World

Winter has transformed the Wildlife Pond at the Wachusett Meadow Audubon in Princeton, MA. The beaver lodge has a chunky white coating, while other areas of the pond sparkle with ice ranging from rough and jagged to windblown and smooth. The red and gold vegetation at the pond edges lends a delicate frame to this “ice world”.